Nahen's plan this time was to spread false rumors in the Human World to lure adventurers. To do this, he manipulated the minds of the captured humans, making them act as spies.
After returning the humans processed according to plan, Nahen left Rin with one request.
"Send them to Soter City in the Holy Theocracy last."
"Understood."
Nahen knew very well who was in Soter City. In Evil Queen Maker, among the human factions, there were several hostile figures that made gameplay difficult.
One of them was Adelbert Grantz, the Adventurer Guild Master of Soter City. He was the Adventurer Guild Master of Soter City, and also the most outstanding active assassin. He was a person with quick judgment and insight, typical of a professional assassin, and the biggest obstacle to Nahen's plan.
That's why Nahen deliberately sent people to Soter City last. Even if Adelbert noticed something suspicious, it would be too late to deal with it. And Nahen's thoughts hit the mark.
Before Adelbert could contact other guilds, having noticed something strange, the other guilds had already dispatched adventurers to the Demon World.
Varuna, positioned on a high hill, let out a dry laugh as he watched the enormous number of adventurers pouring in through each portal to the entrance of the Demon World.
"They're swarming in, Commander."
"Nahen's plan appears to have succeeded."
"The more I see of him, the more impressed I am."
Rin smiled faintly. Even Varuna, who had initially despised Nahen, had come to respect him. Rin offered a word of caution.
"For Lord Nahen's plan to reach fruition, we must play our parts perfectly. So, restrain yourself, Varuna. No need to act like a god or a demon."
"Yes, I understand."
Varuna picked up his spear. Behind him, the soldiers of the 4th Legion, the elite core of the 72nd floor's forces, drew their weapons in unison.
"You heard the commander. Perform well, and capture them alive whenever possible."
"Yes!"
"Begin, Argol."
At Varuna's command, a dark shadow plunged from the sky. Something massive slammed down onto the swarming humans.
Thud!!
"Wha...?"
Several adventurers were instantly crushed. The rest, stunned, held their breath, staring at the colossal stone statue that had landed amongst them. One seasoned adventurer, an 'A' rank clearly visible on his epaulet, screamed in terror.
"G-Gargoyle!?"
"By order of my lord, I will eliminate the intruders."
As the huge gargoyle, Argol, spread its wings, the adventurers were pushed back by the aftermath and fell to the ground, rolling. As they did so, the formation they had been maintaining collapsed, and the chaos increased.
Rin, who was carefully watching the situation, raised her hand. As she folded her hand forward, the legionnaires came forward and took out something.
It was a kind of launcher, resembling a large barrel, capable of shooting objects with magic power. To be precise, it was a launcher that fired nets. There was no need to explain why they had brought it out.
"Fire."
Bang! Bang!
Fueled by the legionnaires' magic power, hundreds of nets were scattered in the sky. The nets scattered in the sky covered the adventurers below.
"Ugh!"
"What the...!"
"Nets!? What the heck..."
The sudden falling of nets from the sky made the already confused adventurers even more confused. In the process, many adventurers were unable to move. Like fish caught in a net.
Seeing this, Rin drew her sword.
"Sortie."
Rin was the first to descend the hill, followed by Varuna. And the legionnaires followed them in an orderly movement.
There was absolutely no unnecessary movement. The way they moved as one body was reminiscent of the legion from the time of the previous Seyre von Devata.
And just like the 4th Legion who had been waiting, there were others waiting on the opposite side. They were originally Sitri's soldiers, but now they were Seere's soldiers.
They were created as a new legion by Nahen, who accepted Rin's advice. They had become the '5th Legion' under Seere von Devata.
Leading the 5th Legion was also Epsilon, who had originally led the troops dispatched to the 72nd floor. The vice-commander was a deputy named Zeta, who was the most skilled according to Epsilon's recommendation.
Epsilon, who was waiting on the opposite hill, saw Rin leading the legionnaires down from the hill they were waiting on. Then Epsilon immediately took out his sword and pointed it at the adventurers below the hill.
"Capture them all!"
"Yes, Sir!"
Seeing the demon soldiers suddenly appearing from both front and back, the already confused adventurers began to panic even more.
"G-Guardians!?"
"Where did so many come from...!"
Especially the inexperienced adventurers were helpless. The only ones who were able to keep their wits about them were the relatively more experienced adventurers above Rank A.
These were certainly skilled and experienced, and they were not flustered. They were mostly stronger than ordinary soldiers, so they were certainly difficult humans to capture. However, they were not an army.
"Hey, help me here!!"
"Shut up, don't order me! I'm busy enough on my side!"
They were not a trained army, but free-spirited adventurers. Naturally, there was no way they had a command structure. The more quick-witted adventurers began to cooperate with each other, but...
Slash!
"He..., Help here!!"
"S-so fast!?"
Those were relatively few in number, and Rin, Varuna, Epsilon, and Zeta took care of them. Meanwhile, one adventurer took out a large greatsword and shouted.
"Those who can fight, follow me!"
On the man's epaulet, there were three A's. Excluding the S rank, which meant the pinnacle of adventurers, it meant the highest rank. A Rank AAA adventurer was a powerhouse on par with an elite knight of a nation.
AAA Rank adventurer Josef Rosenbach. He was one of the top three Crusader adventurers active in the field.
When such an adventurer stepped forward, the atmosphere of the confused and disorderly adventurers changed slightly. Seeing this, Rin ordered Varuna.
"Deal with it."
"Leave it to me, Commander."
As Varuna stepped forward with his spear, Josef raised his holy greatsword, speaking with a fierce aura.
"You filthy demons, release the people you've captured immediately!!"
"Shut up, you worm."
At that moment, Varuna's appearance slowly changed. His fangs became huge and sharp, and his eyes glowed red. Josef flinched at the appearance that resembled a fiend.
The Asura Clan, Varuna's origin, was known for combat prowess even among demons.
"I will execute you."
Woosh!!
In an instant, Varuna's spear pierced Josef's side. He moved with such incredible speed that Josef couldn't even react. Hit directly before activating his protective divine blessing, it couldn't mitigate the damage.
Blood gushed from the pierced armor. Josef collapsed on the spot, feeling severe pain.
"Cough..., guh..."
"J-Josef!!"
Adventurers from his guild looked with astonishment at Varuna, who had taken down Josef instantly. The red-glowing eyes and huge fangs caused a primal fear.
"Ah, Aaaaaah!"
One adventurer even got scared and ran away. Varuna looked at them with eyes that seemed to see them as pathetic worms. And he ordered the legionnaires who followed behind him.
"Don't let them escape. Capture them all."
"Yes."
Despite the difficulty in suppressing adventurers entering the Demon World, the 72nd floor soldiers completely suppressed them.
#
"Good work, Commander Rin."
Nahen, who received the report in his office, clapped his hands. He had captured many humans with far fewer casualties than he had expected. As a bonus, he also obtained their weapons, tools, and medicines.
The quantity was considerable, and the warehouse was quite full. Thanks to this, he was able to bring forward the execution of the plan a little earlier. Nahen praised Rin and Varuna while looking at the amount of spoils and the number of captured prisoners written in the report.
"We only followed Lord Nahen's plan."
"That's right."
"I only made the plan, but you carried it out, so you should be proud."
Nahen said that and looked to the side. Newly created Epsilon and Zeta, participating as commander and vice-commander of the 5th Legion for the first time, were there.
"Commander Epsilon, Vice Commander Zeta."
"Yes."
"Yes."
"You two did a great job too. Thank you for returning safely."
Epsilon was slightly surprised by Nahen's words. He had expected to be thanked for following the plan well or for successfully carrying out the mission.
'Thank you for returning...'
Epsilon smiled pleasantly and bowed his head slightly.
"Thank you."
"I look forward to your future achievements."
Nahen sent the four of them out and summoned Cain, who came into the office with Seere.
"Teacher~!"
Seere ran to Nahen and naturally reached out to sit on his lap. He gently lifted her onto his lap, then spoke to Cain.
"Cain, start leaking information to the merchants of the Demon World."
"Understood."
"Do you see the number of prisoners written here."
"Yes."
Nahen pointed to the number of prisoners written on the report, 672.
"Select 200 of them who have high selling value."
"Excuse me?"
"Return the rest."
Cain asked with a puzzled expression.
"What do you mean? Are you planning to manipulate all of them and use them as spies?"
Cain spoke, recalling Nahen's manipulation of several human minds in this plan. However, Nahen shook his head.
"No, I don't intend to do that."
"Then why are you returning the humans you worked so hard to capture?"
"I'm not just returning them. Keeping them all captured would be difficult to manage, and we don't know how the humans will react. We need to take the initiative."
Nahen smiled.
"We'll get what we can."
"...I'm asking just in case, but are you planning to negotiate with human nations?"
"That's the plan."
"You can't!"
When Cain burst out, Seere frowned with a pouty expression. Startled by her expression, Cain bowed his head.
"...I apologize. I was surprised and impolite."
"Why can't I, Cain?"
"May I speak?"
Nahen told the now cautious Cain to speak comfortably.
"By all means."
"Despite Lord Nahen's greatly developing our forces, I think it is still premature to do something against human nations."
"Which nations do you think we should specifically avoid dealing with?"
"...We must be careful of the Holy Theocracy, the Empire, and the Northern Alliance."
The Theocracy or, better known as the Kingdom of Felix was the only religious nation in the Human World, the Bismarck Empire, the only nation to claim emperorship, and the Northern Alliance, formed by seven northern cities, were groups with great power even among the human nations in the world of Evil Queen Maker.
Nahen was satisfied that Cain had accurately grasped the situation and said to him.
"Then we should avoid negotiating with them?"
"That's right."
"You're wrong, Cain."
"Excuse me?"
Both Cain and Seere, who was listening to the story, tilted their heads.
"We should definitely negotiate with the powerful nations."
"Why? If we provoke them unnecessarily..."
"Don't worry. They won't be able to raise an army."
Cain looked confused by Nahen's certainty. Curious, Seere raised her hand and asked Nahen.
"Why?"
"The larger a country a monarch leads, and the more people they lead, the more cautious they become. Besides, they have a responsibility to protect their citizens."
Nahen stroked Seere's head and said.
"So they won't be able to ignore our demands. If they did, they would lose the trust of their citizens."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. You must always keep that in mind when ruling the Demon King's Castle. For a Demon Lord, maintaining their own power is the most important thing."
Seere blinked her eyes and nodded, whether she understood or not. Cain listened to Nahen's story and bowed his head.
"Then I will do as you wishe. I will select about 200 people with high commodity value, regardless of their origin or status."
"Do so. And one more thing."
"Yes?"
Besides leaking information to merchants and classifying the captured humans into valuable commodities, Nahen had one more thing to ask of Cain.
"Call the blacksmiths of the 72nd and 70th floors."
"Blacksmiths, sir?"
"Yes. Select the skilled ones."
"Understood."
Cain didn't know what Nahen was thinking, but he accepted the order without asking for a reason. After Cain left the office, Seere asked Nahen.
"What are you going to make?"
"We need to make products to sell."
"Huh?"
Among the items looted from the human adventurers, there were not only simple tools, but also quite a few high-quality weapons.
The demon race, born with magic power, had a convenient weapon called magic. Due to this, weapon quality was not high in the Demon World. However, humans relied solely on weapons for protection. Therefore, it was natural that human weapons were relatively better quality than those of the Demon World.
So Nahen was planning to teach the blacksmiths under Seere's command.
He would have them analyze the looted weapons and make weapons of a similar level as much as possible. He planned to sell the weapons made through this process, while also replacing the old weapons of the soldiers under Seere's command.
Nahen smiled and gave Seere some advice.
"There is always something to learn, even from the enemy."